MEA Spring Term 2005 Supervisor: Anders Sannerstedt Department of Political Science

Is Europeanization of the Public Sphere in Media Finally Emerging?

Discussed in Context of the EU Media Policy and Changing Trends within the European Media Structure

Michal Broz

Abstract

The contentious issue of identification of any early signs of the emergence of European public sphere in media is the primary topic of this paper. The qualitative analysis is focused on comparing cross-media empirical data from the previously published research in the area of the television, newspapers, and the new media (internet) which shows on more ideological than nationally based framing of the European transnational debate. The article argues that early signs of emergent Europeanized transnational public sphere in political communication are possible to be positively identified, however, the scale and pace of the progress is relatively slow and is still predominately confined to the most integrated agenda within the EU integration process such as the EU economy. The debate is also put into context with the EU media policy and the role of Commission in particular, which was instrumental, is setting up several important parameters for this regulatory framework such as media pluralism, balancing between the economic interests of the internal market and civil-society concerns. A suggestion for reform is made in the sense that individual driven and open political discourse rather than principally EU level imposed incentives for political communication is a more viable option for increasing the pace of the Europeanized public sphere in media which is likely to help offsetting the ongoing democratic deficit and strengthen the European identity among EU citizenry, nevertheless, the revitalization efforts of the public broadcasting services both nationally and on the community level should not be omitted.

Key words: Europeanization, public sphere, media policy, political communication, transnational communication

Table of contents

1 Introduction......... ………………………………………………………………....1

1.1 Methodology and sources ............................................................................ …..2

1.2 Delimitation ................................................................................................. …..2

2 Theoretical framework…………………………………………………………....3

2.1 Defining Europeanization.................................................................................. 4

2.1.1 Europeanization on institutional level ...................................................... 5

2.1.2 Domestic impact of Europeanization........................................................ 6

2.1.3 Europeanization as a tool of political unification .................................... 7

2.2 Europeanization of public sphere ...................................................................... 7

2.2.1 European and national public spheres ...................................................... 7

2.2.2 Heterogeneity of European public sphere................................................ 8

2.2.3 Modes of discourse in European public sphere ....................................... 8

2.3 Europeanization of public communication and political mobilization.............. 9

2.3.1 Supranationalisation.................................................................................. 9

2.3.2 Vertical convergence from above .......................................................... 10

2.3.3 Horizontal convergence through cross-national diffusion...................... 10

2.3.4 Increased national focussing on Europe ................................................. 11

2.3.5 Europe as a new conflict dimension in public spheres ........................... 11

2.3.6 Additional denationalization effects on European spheres..................... 12

3 EU Media Policy…………………………………………………………............ 13

3.1 Rationale for the EU media policy .................................................................. 13

3.1.1 Economic aspects of audio visual sector ................................................ 14

3.1.2 Social and cultural aspects audio visual sector....................................... 14

3.1.3 Development of audio visual sector........................................................ 15

3.2 Media market convergence and the new technology....................................... 16

3.2.1 Origins of the EU policy for the digital age............................................ 17

3.3 The convergence of telecommunications, informatics, and mass media......... 17

3.3.1 Horizontal communications regulation and cartel office........................ 19

4 Empirical analysis…………………………………………………………......... 20

4.1 Television news ............................................................................................... 20

4.1.1 Comparing three PSB based TV news bulletins..................................... 22

4.1.2 Analysis of the results............................................................................. 23

4.2 The new media (Internet)................................................................................. 24

4.2.1 Results of the study................................................................................. 25

4.3 Newspapers...................................................................................................... 27

4.3.1 The results............................................................................................... 27

5 Summary and conclusions.................................................................................... 29

6 Acknowledgments ................................................................................................. 30

7 Notes....................................................................................................................... 31

8 References.............................................................................................................. 33

1 Introduction

With the ever increasing disposable time which is being spend in front or within the reach of the omnipresent media chatter surrounding our contemporary society, one could argue that the very area of political debate is not likely to be left uninfluenced behind. For one thing, the general role of the media in the political processes is widely acknowledged, yet usually hard to quantify or qualify, the process of European integration presents even a more challenging area of interest given the complexities of the dynamic process which is still in motion.

As on of the most striking examples can be singled out the issue of public sphere and Europeanization of public sphere in media in particular because its presence as well as pace of development is likely to be more elusive to track down than other more visible and already established examples of emerging public sphere be it the increasing role and emancipation of various civil-society actors such as NGOs or other interest groups within the European politics.

Moreover, the lack or slow evolution of public sphere in the EU has been often cited as one the main ingredients for the persisting problem of the ‘democratic deficit’, for the main stake holder involved - the EU constituents. Likewise, probably the most striking example which can be mentioned is the low key presence if any of the Europeanized media during the first or even later stages of the integration process or the current debate on the EU Constitutional Treaty.

In order to grasp more understanding of this situation is it necessary to pose the focal question as to whether there is any identifiable Europeanization of public sphere in the media in the making and additionally do we really need such a beast and lastly where it is heading now at the dawn of the digital overhaul of the traditional centralized media structure?

To identify the problem stemming from these main overarching questions in detail I would like to dedicate the first opening part to introducing some theoretical framework in an attempt to conceptualize the very notion of public sphere and the process of Europeanization as a ground for further analysis. In the same vein the following sub questions dealing with the existence of related EU policies (EU media policy) and their actual capacity to deal with this process effectively in the realm of European media landscape will be discussed. In addition, results of several empirical studies conducted in newspapers, TV, and Internet are going to be set against the initial theoretical discussion as to whether there might be in the end a valuable claim for observing any early clues of emerging Europeanization of public sphere in media.

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1.1 Methodology and sources

The paper is predominately based on qualitative analysis. The normative part of the argument has been whittled down as much as possible in order to be able focus more on the efforts to conceptualize the question of Europeanized public sphere in media given the scarcity of any empirical material on this particular topic in the first place.

In terms of the empirical material provided in the latter part, the ‘novelty’ of this thesis is based mainly in the attempt of cross-media synthesis of recently published independent studies each being focused on different branches of the media landscape including the press, TV, and the new technologies such as the Internet in connection with the efforts on the European policy making level to regulate or even support this process. This empirical material is positioned against the theoretical framework. It was not the scope of this paper to conduct own in-depth inquiry across any particular media sector, however, this ‘lack’ of primary sources has been offset to a certain degree by several brief questionnaires which have been made with some editors of the European media as well as EU policy makers mainly regarding the policy aspect of this debate which they have ample opportunities to witness and influence first hand and their comments provide guidance in framing this thesis.

1.2 Delimitations

Although mentioned as part of the whole nexus of issues affected by the European public sphere and media, the question of European identity per se is not the primary focus of this paper. The theoretical dispute over the existence of European identity can be traced back as far as to the classical K.W. Deutsch's communication theory where the first step of psychological change leading to institutional, social, and finally towards political change are outlined. Conversely, on the other edge of the spectrum authors such as Philip Schlesinger maintain that due to the strongly persistent national homogeneity within the European space in terms of language and territory, it can not in consequence simply even provide a sound basis for common European identity. Moreover, the same skepticism is also voiced towards the mass media, where attempts to form a European public have been called fruitless (Schlesinger 1993).

Similarly, the problem of the so-called democratic deficit within the European integration has been mentioned here as an additional feature of the problem and won't be discussed thoroughly in context of the main debate.

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Specifically, the issue of prevailing democratic deficit is being merely referred to because of its relation to the ongoing debate about firstly accepting the existence and secondly gauging the effectiveness of possibly emerging transnational Europeanized media which might be instrumental in mitigating this deficient engagement of the EU citizenry in the European democratic project by providing and opening therefore the possibility of more direct communication channels between the EU institutional level on one hand and the EU constituents on the other. As it has for instance manifested quite successfully in other public sphere domains with the activity of NGOs which on the other hand with their narrowly specialized interests usually do not posses the most straightforward communication channel suitable for the political mobilization of the European public at large.

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2 Theoretical Framework

In this chapter is presented a theoretical insight into the broad notion of Europeanization and options available to narrow it down to more manageable concepts where for instance the process of Europeanization can be illustrated with more insight regarding its influence on institutional or domestic level. Building on this framework this chapter continues later by expanding the debate through the introduction of the concept of Europeanization of the public sphere and media.

2.1 Defining Europeanization

The notion of Europeanization is a highly contested one in the literature and almost of a speculative nature. Interestingly enough, the most common denominator which could be found among the different views on the subject is to whether and to what extent can Europeanization deliver a ‘change’.

In the case of Radaelli, the very starting point to the concept of Europeanization is on the grounds that it is necessary to make the distinction between the Europeanization and other seemingly comparable concepts such as convergence, harmonization and integration.

For instance, the Europeanization in Radaelli's view can be discussed as long as it includes the already mention component of 'substantive change' leading in turn to substantive policy convergence.

Moreover, in order to measure the extent of change provided by Europeanization the crucial factor remains the level of analysis, "macro-analyses of political structures detect low levels of Europeanization, whereas studies at the policy level signal a more consistent impact." (Radaelli 2000, p. 26).

From additional perspective, the concept of Europeanization can be also discussed in terms how does it manifest itself in various areas. For instance, this process which Olsen also calls with regard to the institutional interplay as a 'mutual adaptation' is possible to digest in his five element division which is based according to what the actual changes delivered by Europeanization might be and also how these particular areas in which is Europeanization at work can be influenced (Olsen 2002).

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• Europeanization defined as an institutional change on the European level, where political coordination within the center provides legal and normative framework.

• Europeanization defined as central penetration of national and sub-national systems of governance, where an effective multilevel system of governance has to strike a balance between centralization of powers on one hand and autonomy on the other.

• Europeanization defined as a vehicle for unified and politically more homogenous landscape of Europe.

• Europeanization defined as a change in external territorial boundaries meaning that the incremental expansion of the system of governance might lead to a creation of a single political space, the process of Europeanization is than carried out by the consecutive waves of enlargement.

• Europeanization defined as exporter of its unique political organization and governance feature outside the European territory. This is mainly an issue of exercising influence on the international arena with international organizations.

The first three options, namely, the influence of Europeanization on

European institutional level, domestic level, and its impact on the possible political unification are the most relevant for our case and discussed bellow in a bit more detailed fashion.

2.1.1 Europeanization on institutional level

In this line of thought is Europeanization perceived as an institutionalizing factor which helps to secure in place all the binding policies on the EU level. This approach to explaining Europeanization is advocated for instance by Risse, Cowles and Caporaso as follows:

The emergence and development at the European level of distinct structures of governance, that is, of political, legal, and social institutions associated with the problem solving that formalize interactions among the actors, and of policy networks specializing in the creation of authoritative European rules (2001, p. 3).

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It is possible to observe that the institutional spheres often mentioned as prerequisites in terms on nation or state building processes might correlate with other policy initiative or long term goals which are either ongoing or yet to be set to take place on the EU level namely, socializing, democratic, or welfare institutional spheres.

For instance, the 'socializing institutions' can be related to educational and cultural identity supported programs on the EU level or 'democratic institutions' fostering democratic citizenship through representative institutions and public forum or 'welfare institutions' linked to emerging social and economic citizenship and rights (Rokkan 1999).

However, these institutional building efforts were first and foremost targeted on the creation a cultivation of the internal market; however, in doing so the uneven legitimacy for pursing EU policies in different economic sectors and among different Member States with sometimes not inclusive priorities increased pressure for strengthening the support for the institutional building process in the first place. Specifically, the political system was in need of additional boost of legitimacy, "like other political systems the EU makes efforts to justify their institutions, to develop a sense of belonging and to create emotional identification with the system among citizens" (Olsen 2002).

2.1.2 Domestic impact of Europeanization

It can be argued that the environment on European level in terms of policies and identities can in turn influence the governance on the domestic level. The mechanisms which are able to push forward this change on the domestic level can be described as either 'experiential learning' or 'competitive selection'.

The experiential learning explains the institutional change as a process of gradual nature in response to past interactions between the actors on the European level and domestic level.

According to the latter competitive selection, both institutions and actors struggle in an environment driven by comparative advantage characterized as a place where "only the most efficient institutions survive. The others disappear." (Olsen 2002).

It is worth to stress the fact that given the diverse institutional history of each Member States it is hard to gauge at this stage which mode of domestic bound form of Europeanization will prevail in the future but it seems to be fair to mention both are equally strong in explaining the processes involved in institutional adaptation. However, what is possible to claim about the influence on domestic structures is that, "in sum, structural diversity persists among the core domestic structures of governance in spite of increasing contact and competition between national models." (Olsen 2002).

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2.1.3 Europeanization as a tool of political unification

This concept in general describes the quest for Europe as politically more homogenous and stronger political body. The problem is how to identify this process if we set aside the first phase of unification such as disassembling the inner borders among the Member State while at same time strengthening its outward borderlines in the traditional terms of territory, trade or shared policies. For one thing, the increased pressure for further political unification could even backfire and start centrifugal reaction and hostile attitudes towards the integration. In addition other factors such as more global interactions and long term or ad-hoc economic as well as political or defense alliances on the international arena could add more dynamics into the process, increasing the complexity even further.

2.2 Europeanization of public sphere

The introduction of the public sphere into the debate is based on the assumption that for contemporary democratic system are crucial open communication channels between individual private actors on hand, and governing authorities constituting the institutional level, on the other. In order to sustain such a system is necessary to have independent interconnecting element in the realm of public sphere such as the independent media.

2.2.1 European and national public spheres

The challenge of conceptualizing arises again with the risk of succumbing to a mere negation of the existence of any transnational public sphere in the first place. The early attempts for instance by Habermas (1995) mentioned its emergence on the condition that people have to talk about the same topic within the same time frame and with comparable degree of relevance. However, more recent definition attempts enabled to re-launch the debate by borrowing a conceptualization structure, proposed for instance by Thomas Risse, which shifts the focus towards the degree of possible "transnationalness" that can be in turn more accurately linked to observation of empirical data - assuming the existence of various public spheres, rejecting thus the homogeneity of national public spheres as well as heir transnational version if elevated up from the national level (Risse 2002, p. 2).

As a point of departure for this concept can be mentioned the definition of public sphere extrapolated from Habermas by Eder, Kantner, Trenz, "the degree to which the same topics are discussed at the same time and at the same level of relevance in various public spaces (e.g. national, but also functionally differentiated)," based on the main idea that in this multi-level politics the focus of public communication on European institution and their policies might become a

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parallel structure to the national political level, therefore not displacing it but rather complement it. (Risse 2002, p. 6). Also, according to this approach the Europeanized public sphere does not necessarily means that the topics discussed are exclusively related to the European level, quite to the opposite, initially on national grounds confined discourse could be therefore moved in turn on the ‘higher’ European level and vice versa.

The set of indicators which can be then utilized against empirical data might be according to this particular model as follows. Firstly, the 'degree of commonality of an issue' meaning measuring the degree of relevance of a particular topic discussed across several national public spheres at the same time and within comparable timeframe. Secondly, the 'transnational European character of communication structure' which is an indicator aimed at measuring the degree to which are transnational actors such as foreign officials or media seen as legitimate contributors in the discussion inside the national public sphere. Thirdly, the indicator called 'construction of collective identity in public spheres' which can be instrumental in mapping the inclusive or exclusive perception of collective European identity in situation where European issues are being discussed. (Risse 2002, p. 8)

2.2.2 Heterogeneity of European public sphere

In a sense the heterogeneity of European public sphere is a precondition to its very existence. It is possible to reach an agreement on the statement that in order to have public space which can effectively reach out on the policy level and influence decision making in an open political discourse is essential to have an environment of democratic polity where constructive disagreement among major actors, be it individual or institutional is actually present.

2.2.3 Modes of discourse in European public sphere

To asses the quality of the debate Risse's project developed four types of communicative strategies for the public sphere (1).

First strategy, the 'symbolic mobilization' relates to calling upon the "transnational mobilization of identities, common values, and myths in Europe, this would connote a rather strong degree of European collective identities which speakers can use as a symbolic resource." (Risse 2002, p. 11).

Second possibility is 'public bargaining' where identities are presumed to be less important than the capacity to reach a compromise.

Third strategy invokes 'principled arguing' which can be described as transformation capacity to pursue argumentation others to own moral values and norms.

Lastly, the strategy of 'public forum' is outlined as, "the more general policy goals are subject to challenges and counter-challenges in the public arena, the more actors need to refer to arguments and justifications in order to make their

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point and to sway a skeptical audience. The more common assumptions and commitments are contested in the public arena, the more deliberation becomes necessary to solve an acute crisis of collective identity.

Since the 'symbolic mobilization' strategy is often inbred in the operation culture of the contemporary mass media is the likely that this might be indicated in the empirical studies as well, however, that does not necessarily means that this type of mobilization is the major communicative strategy in a national or transnational public sphere (Risse 2002, p. 13).

2.3 Europeanization of public communication and political mobilization

Organizing the concepts into more final form and going back to the earlier mentioned view that if we stick to the multi-level structure of the EU system, consequently the process of Europeanization of public spheres will reflect itself in this multi dimensional setting as well with connotations to political mobilization.

Specifically, as has been derived from probably the major project on the subject by Koopmans and Statham and follow-up partial papers with Erbe, know under the acronym Europub.com, entitled "The Transformation of Political Mobilisation and Communication in European Public Spheres" there can be categorized up to five forms of this process: supranationalisation, increased national focusing on Europe, vertical convergence from above, horizontal convergence through cross-national diffusion, and Europe as a new conflict dimension in public sphere (2).

2.3.1 Supranationalisation

The emergence of a supranational European public sphere constituted by the interaction among European-level institutions and collective actors around development of European-wide mass media (Koopmans and Erbe 2003, p. 6).

Although, a fully developed European public sphere is most probably a non

existent concept as of today it is possible to trace down some early signs of its gradual emergence in some EU policy sectors. In particular, transnational media in the area of coverage the most integrated parts of the EU economy such as the financial information related to the daily condition of the Euro-zone are likely to gain quickly more momentum since the recent launch of the final stage of the Euro-zone project in 2002. Also, in the area of the new media where traditional territorial linkages play a less important role if any is one likely to be more successful in looking for the nucleus of this transnational communication.

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2.3.2 Vertical convergence from above

Vertical Europeanisation, which consists of communicative linkages between the national and the European level. There are two basic variants of this pattern, a bottom-up one, in which national actors address European actors and/or make claims on European issues, and a top-down one, in which European actors intervene in national policies and public debates in the name of regulations and common interests (Koopmans and Erbe 2003, p. 6).

As an illustration of the bottom-up vertical Europeanization convergence can be mentioned a situation where a national actor starts a case in the Europe Court of Justice. On the other hand, the top-down vertical Europeanization convergence can take place when, "European actors address national actors, usually regarding common European issues and interests (e.g., when the Commission threatens sanctions against governments who do not meet the criteria of the stability pact) (Koopmans and Erbe 2003, p. 10).

2.3.3 Horizontal convergence through cross-national diffusion

Horizontal Europeanization, which consists of communicative linkages between different member states. We may distinguish a weak and a strong variant. In the weak variant, the media in one country cover debates and contestation in another member state, but there is no linkage between the countries in the structure of claims-making itself. In the stronger variant, actors from one country explicitly address, or refer to actors or policies in another member state (Koopmans and Erbe 2003, p. 7).

This horizontal convergence can be observed mainly in the heated economic debates when the possibility of influencing national public sphere in other state suddenly gains on significance.

In this fashion can public debates diffuse in cross-national manner from one national sphere to another quite easily, "one example of such diffusion is the increasing exchange of opinion articles among newspapers from different European countries (e.g., the exchange of opinion articles among El Pais, the Guardian and de Volkskrant or the inclusion of translated versions of Le Monde Diplomatique as a monthly supplement to newspapers in Germany , Austria, the United Kingdom and other countries.." (Koopmans and Statham 2002).

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2.3.4 Increased national focussing on Europe

Europeanization may also take shape of increased importance of national public sphere due to the prevailing fragmentisation and heterogeneity of the European public space in positioning itself against or pro certain policies on the EU level

First, European institutions and their representatives may intervene themselves as actors in national public spheres, e.g. by criticizing national policies or propagating European integration. Second, European institutions may be directly addressed by national collective actors, e.g. to intervene against an unwanted national policy. Third, European institutions and policies may be addressed indirectly, e.g. when a group demands from the national government to intervene on the European level to further its interests. Finally, European institutions and policies, or the European integration process generally, may be referred to in order to back demands and policy viewpoints, e.g. when national governments argue that a specific national policy is necessary because of the need for 'harmonization', or impossible because it cannot be implemented nationally without common European action or the implementation of similar policies in other member states (Koopmans and Statham: 2002).

2.3.5 Europe as a new conflict dimension in public spheres

In his part are previously described forms of Europeanization seen as imaginable source of new divisions within the society. In particular, the process of denationalization might highlight the division between those social groups which benefit from the intensification of transnational processes because of their readiness in terms of education or financial resources.

In contrast, there might be social groups on the other side of the spectra who perceived the national boundaries in terms of nation specific legal protection, trade barriers or subsidies as beneficial. Therefore is likely to expect increase of negative attitudes towards the European integration project in the debates within the national public sphere, eventually rising on the European level or diffusing to other national public spheres creating thus jointly Europeanized action against integration as oddly as it might sound. However, it is possible to state that these new political cleavages and conflicts might in turn paradoxically strengthen the transnational debate and integrate more wider audience into taking more active part inside the Europeanized public sphere and eventually therefore affecting the creation of the European identity (Koopmans and Statham: 2002).

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2.3.6 Additional denationalization effects on European spheres

As hinted earlier the denationalization processes are not strictly confined

to the integration projects such as the European one. Additional factors exert pressure simultaneously on the traditional nation-state structures and its communication space. There can be identified two possible directions.

Firstly, it can be in a form of grater push for denationalization in favor of global arrangements with regard to trade, security, environment etc. Secondly, the denationalization with regard to European spheres can take place inside the nation-state by shifting some of the policy competences on lower institutional levels such as regional governments or individual communities.

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3 EU Media Policy

In this chapter an account of the EU media policy is presented with the emphasis of its audio visual sector which can be considered as both the flagship and a test bad of the EU regulation in the media domain. The major policy initiative, their goals, and areas which are likely to be subject to further reform because of the fast paced technological changes on the media market are discussed.

Also a brief outlook into the looming convergence of telecommunication and media sectors is provided because of the impact of this development on the future European media landscape as a vehicle in the overall question surrounding possible emergence of Europeanized public spheres. The debate as to whether more horizontal regulation through single European regulator could be the answer for these new challenges is also mentioned.

3.1 Rationale for the EU media policy

It is necessary to stress the fact that there can be identified two basic substantiations why the EU has become interested venturing into this previously nation state regulated domain.

For one thing, the primary motivation seems to be the inclusion of this important European economic sector into the framework of the integrated internal market. Secondly, it has been acknowledged that there are to consider other important connotations beside the pure market functions of the media such as social, educational or cultural impact of the audiovisual sector.

Because the forthcoming discussion in this segment about the EU media policy is mainly oriented at the Commission activism it might be of importance to mention firstly the role of the European Parliament. The Parliament despite the lack of adequate resources was quite instrumental in repeatedly raising the necessity for a full-fledged media policy. It was specifically interested in the domain of media pluralism, which was though to be endangered during the integration of the internal market and consequent faster convergence and consolidation driven by MNCs on the media market. In particular, the internal form of media pluralism consisting of editorial independence, employment strategies, production strategies (information sources) or media content regulation were in the view of the European Parliament too important not to address them in a standalone regulatory framework. However, in the end, the media pluralism policy has fallen under the merger control policy arena exactly in accordance to Commission’s plan and thus, "the negative response to the idea of specific EU

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media pluralism regulation has actually confirmed the existing EU regulatory framework concerning media, which is considerably disintegrated," into audio visual policy, merger regulation in competition policy, and the new media and communications in information society policy (Klimkiewicz 2005, p. 6).

In the latest development the European Parliament in its "Report on the Risk of Violation, in the EU and especially in Italy, of freedom of Expression and Information" from 2004 asked Commission again to review its powers over the media policy which is scattered among several DGs in order to strengthen measures vis-à-vis Member States who might have gotten into serious problems in the area of media pluralism such as is the recent case of Italy.

3.1.1 Economic aspects of audio visual sector

It can be stressed the argument that the audio-visual sector is important from the perspective of its ability to create and sustain large number of high-skilled jobs across Europe. The sector is directly employing roughly about the one million people. From the perspective of the internal market positioned against foreign competition is the situation quite alarming, "productions account for between 60 and 90% of Member States' audiovisual markets, whilst the respective European share of the American, market is of the order of 1 or 2%" (COM (99) 657 final).

In the light of this obvious discrepancy the EU media policy response become increasingly aimed at the following options, protection of the community landscape by firstly, setting up quotas on foreign production and secondly supporting domestic media industries through development programs such as the 'Television without Frontiers' or Media I and Media II programmes.

3.1.2 Social and cultural aspects audio visual sector

If we are about accept the assignment of preserving and supporting effectively European diversity, and the cultural identities the media industry perhaps can not be left to the market forces alone, in that sense is the audio visual sector the foreground of this debate.

Household penetration of television sets in Europe is of the order of 98% and the average European watched some 205 minutes of television a day in 1998, up 6 minutes on the previous year. For children the figure is even higher. It is the major source of information and entertainment in European societies (COM (99) 657 final). These numbers seems to indicate the huge impact TV and other media

communication channels might exercise on the society in general. However, this can be also extrapolated to overall issues of transnational politic communication where the multiplicative effect of transmission is likely to increase its strength as it might for instance take the shape of earlier described cross-national diffused

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form of Europeanization. Therefore the rational for at least some degree of regulatory framework for the media sector sounds appropriate.

3.1.3 Development of audio visual sector

It is possible to observe that right from the outset of the framing of the EU media policy the balancing act of the market and more pro cultural driven camps can be evaluated as detrimental to bolder drafted initiatives or faster application of these policies. As put it Chung in his thesis on the subject, "the conflict between cultural and economic aspects is evident throughout the development if a coherent policy framework. Again, this conflict is reflected in internal infighting among Commission DGs representing diverse interests and enjoying different powers” (Chung 2002, p. 32).

As already indicated the media sphere and the audio visual sector in particular where traditionally a domain on national regulatory frameworks the sudden change came with the era of the 'new dynamism' in European integration in the early and mid 1980s where it become apparent that the important media domain can not be left unincorporated into the processes of deregulation and liberalization (SEA, TEU) leading to the completion of the internal market. The main goals of the European level regulatory framework were set up having the following priorities in mind:

• Regulation assuring effective single market for the media. In addition, safeguards such as protection of minors from explicit content have been put in place. These aspects two were combined in the ‘Television without Frontiers’ initiative later becoming a directive.

• The issue of adjusting existing national level regulation was addressed by the Media I and Media II programmes (Measures to Encourage the Development of the Audiovisual Industry).

• Additional regulation with respect to the external protection of the European cultural space was put in place jointly on the EU level in order to be able to face these ‘protectionist’ attitudes on the floor of the international organizations (WTO). Although, there are still active certain clauses from the former GATS enabling exceptions in case of invoking the public interest claim.

As the first attempt to launch the debate on regulating the media sector on

European level can be singled out the 1984 Green paper entitled 'Television without Frontiers' which was later adopted in a directive from 1989 on television broadcasting (89/552/EEC). This first step was an important impetus for providing the foundations for transnational communication within the unique European cultural space. This act has been amended in 1997 (97/36/EC) in order

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to reflect the forthcoming technological challenges such as digitalization, further developed protection of minors and also advertisement related regulations.

The perception that the hopes vested into the ‘'Television without Frontiers' were a bit premature with regard to the pace or the European integration and perhaps too ambitious at that stage of integration can be illustrate on the following account, however it helps provide a valuable insight into the motivation behind these first attempts to introduce some regulatory framework for the European media space:

At the Florence conference of 1987 the European leaders argued the centrality of transnational communication to the elevation of a common 'European identity' of democratic, artistic, and economic culture. Trans-border participation in share mass media image, representatives argued, would lead to models of peace and common identity and away form patterns of conflict arising in xenophobic identities (Chung 2002, p. 36).

The start of single European Market provided additional energy in terms of

increased regulatory activity, one of the major reasons was the already mentioned weaker stance of domestic broadcasters against the foreign competition. As a result the first MEDIA I program of 1991-1995 was launched with the focus on cross-national cooperation to strengthen economies of scale in the big industry as well as providing support to medium sized media operators sized operators but at the same time allow for national cultural diversity on the European media scene. After the evaluation of the MEDIA I stage the follow-up MEDIA II (1995-2000) and MEDIA Plus (2000-2005) added support by increased funding for training of professionals and distribution of audiovisual programs. The funding allowances were for the initial budget worth 200 ECU million for the each five year life cycle of the MEDIA I and MEDIA II respectively.

3.2 Media market convergence and the new technology

In a sense the first stages of the regulative efforts such as 'Television without Frontiers' or MEDIA I and II programmes were reflecting the technological realities of the 'yesteryear', and were focusing mainly on supporting on one hand and offsetting possible negative aspects from the convergence of the traditional media industry on the other.

However, the fast paced technological change in the communication and information technology sectors of the early and mid 1990s underlined the urgency of amending and laying out new outlines for the changing European media landscape.

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3.2.1 Origins of the EU policy for the digital age

The first serious attempt to tackle the looming issue of convergence was addressed in "The Commission Green Paper on of the Convergence of the Telecommunications, Media and Information Technology Sectors, and Implications for Regulation" in 1997 (COM (97) 623).

The follow-up review by the Commission produced the Communication "Towards a new Framework for Electronic Communications Infrastructure and Associated Services: the Communication Review" suggested an inclusive approach whereby new regulatory framework would address all the associated services (COM (99) 539 final). The following basic principles have been acknowledged with regard to the audio visual content regulation.

Firstly, the principle of proportionality as derived from the Treaty in terms of the freedom to provide services, stipulates that the degree of intervention by the regulator should be appropriate to the objective taken, which has been reflected also in the directive 'Television without frontiers'. Secondly, the review panel confirmed the conclusion from the above mentioned Green paper on Convergence that the regulation of the content and the transport of the signal should be governed separately.

Thirdly, it has evaluated the role of public service broadcasting and the need for transparency in its financing in the context of the future dual system of broadcasting where the private and public spheres should enjoyed balanced position. On the other hand it granted free hand to Member States in terms of the funding schemes, organization, licensing etc. as long as its adheres to the Treaty provisions on competition.

Lastly, in terms of regulation the proposed self-regulation approach granting governments defining their own public interest can not infringe the principle of subsidiarity or lead to a market distortion by favoring the domestic players against smaller or other EU competitors.

3.3 The convergence of telecommunications, informatics, and mass media

In this part a brief detour into the realm of the communication convergence related regulation is necessary in order to complete the overview of some of the most important aspects of the European media policy in terms of the implications stemming from the new technology:

The phenomenon of convergence combined with liberalization and globalization is leading to the formation of a changed societal communications system, called mediamatics, which renders the traditional communications regulation system obsolete. To meet the challenges inherent in this development we have proposed a

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reform toward an integrated policy approach that overcomes the traditional dichotomy between the governance of telecommunications and media (Just and Latzer 1999, p. 2).

In particular, the development toward the 'information society' might

manifest itself in the form of the telecommunications and information technology on one hand and the media on the other. This confrontation between the economic and cultural aspects is explained in the historical context by Just and Latzer as a two stage convergence process. First stage encompasses the convergence of telecommunications with computers (informatics) toward telematics. In the second stage the convergence of electronic mass media (broadcasting) with telematics toward mediamatics occurs (Just and Latzer 1999, p. 3):

Figure 1. Convergence stages in electronic communications. Until 1970s Since 1970s Since 1980s Telecommunications Telecommunications Electronic Media + + Computers Informatics Telematics (informatics) = = Broadcasting (electronic Telematics Mediamatics mass media) Source: Ibid.

In particular, the concept Mediamatics could be demonstrated on dissolving the traditional barrier between the distribution channels, the media content provider, equipment and associated services. As a result of these cross-ownership relationships the ultimate convergence is already taking place while the regulatory framework is still in the trap of the old paradigm of separated telecommunications channels and the media content.

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3.3.1 Horizontal communications regulation and cartel office

For one thing, the dissimilar stages of the liberalization efforts on the

European telecommunications sector and the European level media front and specifically regarding the audio visual policy were apparently not synchronized.

This shortcoming has been amplified with regard to the competition policy framework which is being administered by a nexus of Commission bureaucracy ranging from DG I (External Relations), DG III (Industry), DG X (Information, Communication, Culture, Audiovisual), DG XIII (Telecommunications, Information Market and Exploitation of Research) to DG XV (Internal Market and Financial Services). Also the regulation within the Member States and consequent issues with the proper functioning of the subsidiarity principle has complicating the issue even more.

Therefore a call for an independent competition agency to release this problem from the diverging agendas within the Commission can be already heard in several Member States, however, in order to introduce horizontal communications regulation and making stronger cause for establishing an independent European Cartel Office (ECO) a much strong support from the Member States would be necessary.

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4 Empirical analysis

This chapter is focused on the overview of the outcome from some of the first empirical analysis undertaken on field of Europeanization of public sphere in media. The selection of these empirical studies is in a direct link to the second chapter which introduced some current conceptualizing efforts of European public spheres and transnational political communication.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that I have chosen a cross-media perspective where the diverse communication channels notably the television, the Internet, and print media (newspapers) were put together in order to confirm or disprove as to whether any of these modes of mass communication are likely to be more suitable for the emergence of the Europeanized public spheres in media or alternatively whether the variance among these 'messengers' makes no qualitative difference at all.

4.1 Television news

The first study to be discussed is the "Television news and the European public sphere: A preliminary investigation" by Fritz Groothues who put into the test the 'prime time' news bulletins from three public service broadcaster, namely those based in the Great Britain, France and Germany. The time span of the project was two weeks (June-July 2003).

As mentioned earlier the role of television as the European primary medium and source of news has grown enormously during the recent decades as it is now indicated for instance in public opinion analysis conducted in 2001 by Eurobarometer 56, this trend holds as with regard to the preferred method for receiving information about the EU (Fig. 2) as well as in terms of the most favored general news source (Fig. 3).

This rising trend in television is especially visible in comparison to the decrease of the print media readership. The number of Euro citizens (EU 15/2001) getting news from newspapers has decreased to 40%. Moreover, the rapid growth of penetration of televised news as opposed to the decline of reach in the print media segment is probably most evident on the territorial division axis of Southern Europe and applicant countries as opposed to the Northern part of the EU (Eurobarometer 56).

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Figure 2. Preferred method for receiving information about the EU (EU15).

Source: Survey no. 56.2 - Fieldwork Oct - Nov 2001 Standard Eurobarometer 56 - Fig. 7.2.

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Figure 3. News viewer-ship on television (EU15).

Source: Survey no. 56.2 - Fieldwork Oct - Nov 2001 Standard Eurobarometer 56 - Fig. 7.3a.

4.1.1 Comparing three PSB based TV news bulletins

The author based the research on several assumptions, primarily on the fact that all the three television news outlets were chosen among the European public service broadcasters (PSBs) where can be one more likely to make the assumption that "the prime function of PSBs to address audiences as citizens and not just consumers" and therefore it can be expected that the audience is capable of at least of some basic resonance with the European agenda (Groothues, p. 3).

Another criterion was that all the selected television stations which carried the news bulletins were enjoying one of the highest audiences nationally and that the news programs were not too short on their airtime. In particular, the news bulletins went as follows, Telejournal on France 2 at 20:00, Tagesschau on the ARD at 20:00 and BBC News at 10 o’clock (22:00) on BBC1, local times. The categorization of news was prepared into four simple options: domestic, non-European international, European-international, and EU affairs related news piece.

Additional, criterion was that at that time of the study there should not be any interfering European event of groundbreaking intensity on the agenda. Luckily enough, one of the major stories of that 'sleepy summer season' broke out on its own, it was a rather infamous moment when the Italian PM "Silvio Berlusconi’s

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speech on 2nd July before the European Parliament, in which he jokingly offered a German MEP the role of Kapo in an Italian film" with a follow-up of number of EU actors as well EU institutions commenting this accident (Groothues, p. 9).

4.1.2 Analysis of the results

As shown in the data (Fig. 4) there was a similar general pattern in the proportion of coverage given to each of the four specific news categories, although some difference apply. In particular, the France 2 ranked as the least performing outlet in terms of the proportion of both general European and European international related news, giving in total only 4% of the entire news bulletin to the EU stories. The other extreme was the case of ARD which dedicated the most stories from all of the three outlets surveyed and yet the ARD ran the shortest piece.

Figure 4. The proportion of news items according to each category.

Source: Ibid. From this pattern is possible to conclude, that the contemporary prevailing

editorial policy is still giving the utmost priority to the domestic issues, the European level is likely to enter the scene only in case of a more serious development unfolding, e.g. the Berlusconi case:

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The dominant EU issue during this period, Berlusconi’s outburst in the EP, was covered by all three stations in remarkably similar terms, focusing on the unpredictability of Berlusconi’s behaviour and the consequences for the Italian EU presidency. After the cancellation of Schröder’s holiday in Italy the coverage then shifted towards the fallout for German-Italian relations (Groothues, p. 10). However, in that case of comparable intensity and framing of the issue

seems to indicate emergence of 'Europeanized message' which enters the public sphere. Lastly, in my humble opinion the shortcoming of this study was the focus on the prime time news bulletin which will probably always be the most connected to domestic coverage. A future follow-up study might consider focusing on the proportion of specialized European agenda programs in the entire broadcasting plan of the public service broadcasting media.

4.2 The new media (Internet)

The focus of this segment is on the new media, the Internet in particular, and its possible effects in terms of any signs of emergence of Europeanized public sphere in media. It draws on the results obtained from the empirical study by Ruud Koopmans and Ann Zimmermann, entitled "Internet: A New Potential for European Political Communication?" which was a part of already mentioned complex Europub.com project.

The starting ground for this study are the debates whether the new media channel such as the Internet do possess some qualitatively different properties which might set them apart from the more traditional media outlets in television and print in terms of their effects on the political communication. There can be identified two basic approaches, firstly, based on the assumption that the new technologies such as the Internet can revitalize the contemporary democratic systems by its more inclusive capabilities in terms of more open and affordable communication channels for the constituents at large. On the other hand, this can be also interpreted as a potential weakness because of the increased social fragmentation and polarization due to the ample options available (information overload) whereby the impact on the democratic system could be negative (Koopmans and Zimmermann 2003, p. 1).

The authors focused on seven European countries in the context of political communication on the following EU level issue fields: monetary politics, agriculture, immigration, troop’s deployment, education, pensions, and European integration. The study acquired a sample of approximately 420 websites for each country throughout the sampling period which took place in two separate terms, July 2002 and November 2002. The relevancy of the selected websites was judged according to the conditions with respect to content, language, and location in Europe.

The main research questions were centered on the role of Internet as a more suitable communication channel for less-institutionalized actors who would

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like to join the public debate and are not properly represented by the mass media. In this regard they made an interesting early observation that that the role of the Internet search engines as 'internet gate keepers' to particular information resembles to a certain degree the editorial policy of the traditional media so the openness and inclusiveness of the internet as medium has in that sense its limits and this should be therefore included into the general assumptions as well.

4.2.1 Results of the study

The priority was given to the question concerning presumed non-hierarchical nature and the degree of transnational effect of the Internet. Specifically, as can be illustrated on the Table 1, the traditional media which were represented by their online editions accounted for 33 % of the websites, followed by state actors with 21% hits form the search engines.

Table 1: Actors that run the websites selected by the search engines as results

State actors 21%

pure online media 15%

online edition of offline media 33%

socio-economic interest groups 13%

social and educational organisations 9%

NGO's/social movement groups 7%

others/unknown 2%

Total (%) 100%

Total (N) 392

Source: Koopmans and Zimmermann 2003.

What is worth noticing is the fact that if the higher institutionalized civil-

society actors performance lumps together (socio-economic interest groups and social, scientific and educational organizations) they can account even for a slightly more (22%) than the state actors with 21% of all websites.

In additional data findings the authors observed that "the data show that only 35% of the claimants reach the audience directly, whereas the remaining 65% depend on other actors for gaining public visibility on the Internet (3). This is an important finding given the fact that the hopes for the Internet as a more egalitarian form of communicative space are based on the unfiltered access to the public for collective actors, and especially for less-institutionalized actors (Koopmans and Zimmermann 2003, p. 11).

In terms of the issue field organization on the transnational and European level is visible the finding on Table 2 that the European level actors are likely to manifested themselves most often as claimants in the area of monetary politics

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which is on of the most integrated parts of the EU policies (for Eurozone Member States) as on this example from Germany.

Table 2: Scope of claimants per issue field

Monetary Agri- culture

Immi-gration Troops Pensions Education EU ALL

Other supra- and international 0% 7% 0% 23% 0% 4% 4% 5%

European 46% 13% 2% 2% 5% 0% 35% 15%

National: Germany 22% 49% 86% 30% 86% 75% 33% 55%

National: other EU 4% 11% 5% 13% 4% 13% 23% 10%

National: non-EU 24% 20% 4% 32% 4% 9% 5% 14%

Unclassifiable 6% 0% 4% 0% 2% 0% 0% 2%

Total (%) 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% Total (N) 55 55 56 56 57 56 57 392

Source: Koopmans and Zimmermann 2003. In summary it is possible to state that within the public sphere of political

communication through the role of intermediaries such as internet search engines can be indicated a pattern of hierarchy where the state actors and media actors tend to dominate online political communication. Also, it can be observed that the Internet seems to offer better opportunities for non-institutional actors to achieve public visibility than the traditional media (Koopmans and Zimmermann 2003, p. 14).

However, the overall picture looks like that "the inherent transnational character of the Internet infrastructure is not reproduced. Nationally-based state actors are by far the most prominent claimants”, and therefore “our results imply that the sphere of political communication selected by search engines does not contribute to a Europeanization of public communication and mobilization to a larger degree than the traditional media public sphere” (Koopmans and Zimmermann 2003, p. 18).

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4.3 Newspapers

This last empirical study to be discussed, "The EU as a Political Community A Media Analysis of the 'Haider Debate' in the European Union" by the collective of authors Marianne Van de Steeg, Valentin Rauer, Sylvain Rivet, and Thomas Risse centered their research around high profile case on the European political scene of 1999 when the newly elected Austrian government was created with the junior coalition partner from the populist but more importantly openly xenophobic Jörg Haider’s right-wing Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ) party. The follow-up uproar all over the Europe pressed the Presidency of the European Council of Ministers to impose approximately half year long "diplomatic bilateral sanctions" of the EU Member States against the Austrian government.

The empirical data were collected in time frame spanning from October 1999 (elections in Austria) until September 2000 (EU sanctions lifted off). In order to mitigate the possible bias authors have chosen in addition to Austria other European countries with strong right-wing party support such as in Belgium (Vlaams Blok), France, Germany, Italy (Alleanza Nazionale and the Lega Nord).

The criteria for newspaper selection was besides the general quality status a nation wide circulation if possible and left or right centrist orientation. Included were the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the French Le Figaro, the Italian Il Corriere della Sera, the Belgian De Standaard, Austrian Die Presse. In addition three tabloids/popular newspapers such as Le Parisien (French, center), La Nazione (Italian, right), and Austrian Neue Kronen Zeitung were included to the observed pack.

In order to frame the issue of sanctions and its effects in each country, the authors focused on finding and comparing the following specific frames of the debate, 'horizons of reference', specifically ‘Europe is a moral community’ and ‘Europen legal standards’.

4.3.1 The results

The results showed polarization of the newspapers into three roughly same big groups. Firstly, the conservative Die Presse (Austria), Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany), and De Standaard (Belgium) augmented by using ‘Europe is a moral community’ and ‘European legal standards’ frames against the sanctions. Secondly, the center left leaning newspapers such as Austrian Der Standard, French Le Monde, Belgian Le Soir, and the Italian La Repubblica used exactly the same frames but in support of the sanctions. The third group was taking a middle ground on the issue while using the same frames as well consisted of, Le Figaro (France), Il Corriere (Italy), and Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany) (Van de Steeg et al., p. 13).

Surprisingly, the initial assumption that some newspapers will take general negative position against Austria on nationalist grounds did not happen at all

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instead it showed more left, centrist, and right leaning opinion cleavage of transnational nature with regard to these imposed European sanctions. The authors interpreted these findings as prove that a transnational European public sphere can evolve only through engaging actively in social practice of permanent political discourse (Van de Steeg et al., p. 13).

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5 Summary and conclusions

Before going into answering the overall question confined in my thesis as to whether Europeanization of public sphere in media is slowly emerging let me instead firstly address the surrounding sub questions. In particular the issue concerning the importance of concept like this can be answered by summing up the major point from the introductory theoretical concept supported by the empirical data presented. In essence the improved transnational political communication in the public sphere can be a helpful instrument in construction of the European identity and European citizenry and therefore a natural ingredient in the gradual process in offsetting the democratic deficit confined in the European integration.

In practice, however, it is necessary to acknowledged that the media policy on the European level has been historically a subject to different priorities where the economic factors in terms of creation and supervision of the internal market dominated the agenda. This has resulted in somewhat incoherency policy framework which can be for instance demonstrated by the involvement of many DGs in this area with often competing priorities. Not surprisingly, the representatives of the civil-society in the European Parliament and Committee of the Regions demand review of the Commission powers and suggest a separate media policy regulation on safeguarding more effectively the European media pluralism across all the Member States. In the same vein, the major European players from the ‘mediamatics’ domain demand the creation of two institutions, independent European communications regulator and European cartel office in the light of the Commission acting as the policy drafter, supervisor, and judge.

In terms of the feedback the current media policy receives is possible to stress the negative impact of the recent rush into Treaty on EU Constitution which seems to even deepen reservations among many Europeans into the legitimacy, and perhaps too fast pace of integration. On the other hand, this can be a positive sign of increased public debate and thus a welcomed development.

Moreover, the interest of the Commission in funding a major study into the question of political mobilization and European public sphere in media, the Europub.com project, under the 5th Framework Programme for Research and Development suggest that the Commission has acquired a serious interest in the analysis of the current state of the affairs. Furthermore, as it has recently appeared in the leaked working internal memo, the Commission considers a deeper reform within its Communication and Audio-visual department with the focus on improving the communication between the EU level decision makers and EU constituents (Mahony 2005).

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The specific policy tools which might be in the pipeline for the near future are not disclosed yet but this important new Commission White Paper (scheduled for June 2005 release) on the subject is near its completion and is said to be in concert with recent speech by the Commissioner Margot Wallström which seems to consider bolder action in terms ‘pan-European dialogue’, boosting community's as of now still infant public broadcasting, among other proposals (5).

In terms of the presented cross-media overview of empirical studies in the area of television, the Internet, and newspapers several interesting observations can be summed up. Firstly, the television case signaled the important role of editorial policy within public service broadcasters and the prevailing focus on domestic issues. Secondly, the 'Haider case' in the newspapers indicated surprising polarization on rather ideological grounds than national one within the transnational European discourse. Thirdly, the role of the new media such as the internet prove to be a bit 'over hyped', nevertheless becoming a very strong instrument in the hands of the civil-society in terms of access to the transnational communication space and when combined forces it even can outperform the traditional media or state actors in terms of its media reach. The studies have shown some basic occurrence of horizontal as well as some signs of cross-national diffusion forms of Europeanization of the public sphere in media. Also, both the newspaper and television studies had shown a direct effect in case of spike of transnational European political communication in the public sphere in times of exalted issues which gained the spotlight (Haider, Berlusconi case) it also indicated a connection between the most integrated EU policies and their increased propensity to be covered in mass media.

In closing and to tackle the main question, I am of the opinion that early signs of emerging European public sphere exist, however, the space for this transnational political communication in Europe cannot be in my humble opinion merely created by the EU level policy but rather by individual engagement of European citizens in the political discourse. In that view the EU policy should focus more indirectly for instance on creating better conditions for media pluralism and supporting national public service broadcasters, and also by improving the quality of it own media channels such as EbS (Europe by Satellite), perhaps with the mid term goal of creating truly pan European public broadcasting TV, Radio independent service funded for instance in part by the EU budget and the commercial media networks industry.

Finally, as put it Risse on the subject of national and slowly emerging European polity and creation of European public sphere, “many political and business leaders in Europe believe that controversial debates on Europe, the EU, and European policies will endanger the European integration process and slow it down considerably. Therefore, one should not touch the European elite consensus which still prevails in many, particularly Continental European countries. This belief is dangerous in democratic terms and plain wrong in empirical terms. Contestation and politicization is constitutive for a democratic polity including the European polity (2003, p. 10).

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6 Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Prof. Anders Sannerstedt for being an inspiring supervisor, especially during the initial ‘brainstorming’ phase of the project where his insightful thoughts and suggestions have been very valuable for the work on this thesis.

I would like to also express my gratitude, namely, to the editor of Euobserver.com Lisbeth Kirk, Lena AG Cabinet Member for Communication Policy of the Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication, and Zdenek Samal the News Director at the Czech TV for their kind help in assessing this complex topic.

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7 Notes

(1) The project by Risse and Van de Steeg, "An Emerging European Public Sphere? Empirical Evidence and Theoretical Clarifications", focused on the impact of Jörg Haider’s Freedom Party in Austria case rising to European level and the sanction policy against Austria as reflected in the European media (newspapers in Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, and Italy) more on this study in Chapter 4.3. (2) Project Europub.com has been sponsored by the European Commission within the 5th Framework Programme for Research and Development (project no. HPSE-CT2000-00046), and is conducted across six EU member states. http://europub.wz-berlin.de (3) The full study offers even more interesting data. For instance the comparison between the selected issues represented on the Internet and in the newspapers (e.g. Table 10). (4) More data are available from project. For instance US-EU perspective in defining European identity has been omitted or more detailed statistics on the newspapers. (5) The Commissioner Wallström’s proposals in her recent speech at “Putting the EU in the picture”, Conference (20/04/2005) are in direct connection to the content of the forthcoming White Paper as it was hinted to the author by Lena AG, Cabinet Member of the Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication Policy (Audiovisual, Internet). http://weblog.jrc.cec.eu.int/page/wallstrom

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